The Shroud is Breaking
by Heddy12311
Summary: Max is a normal Australian teenager. Well... Normal in every sense, except he is an Egyptian magician. Assigned to a new school in a new town, where he is to find initiates for training, he meets people of the kind that he never knew existed. Hearing of a plot to destroy the world, can he and his new friends save it, or is the world doomed forever? Rated T just in case.
1. Prologue or Introduction

**Disclaimer: I do not own the concepts written about in this story. Hogwarts, Harry Potter and all associated... er... ideas belong to J.K Rowling (they aren't mentioned yet, but they will be). Egyptian Magicians, Nomes, Egypt, the Duat, The Kane Chronicles and all related stuff belong to Egypt (and the other stuff goes to Rick Riordan). Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, and any related stuff there also belongs to Greece, Rome and Rick Riordan respectively.**

**Claimer: Max, Sophie, Ariana, Nathan, Jack and Paul are partly my friends and partly what I've re-written. I hope I've written you well. Durgham is not a city in Victoria, It represents my home town.  
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Hey. My name's Max. I'm a thirteen year old magician with the House of Life. I've been living in Melbourne for the past two years training under the guidance of the magic tutors there, and I am now a fully competent magician. I may write about my time learning in the future, but it's more important that you know the story of how my friends and I saved the world ... again.

[Sophie says that I'm 'waffling' so I'd better get on with the story.]

I woke up one cloudy summer's day in the 300th Nome in Melbourne. I was hungry (as usual) so I made up some corn flakes. I flicked on the telly (you in America might call it a TV, but you're going to have to learn to speak properly) and watched some cartoons (hey, a thirteen year old gets bored). Slowly, everybody else in the mansion trundled down the stairs to join me. Suddenly, a video message came through on our smart telly from the Chief Lector, Amos Kane.

"Morning, guys. I hope you all slept well, as usual. Today, you are getting a new assignment.**"**

There was a collective groan.

"No, it isn't as bad as you might think," Amos said, sounding slightly hurt.

"You are going to all be spread out to different major towns across the country, posing as students. While frequenting the schools, you are to try to locate as many candidates for magic training as possible. Also, we've had reports of some strange forms of magic popping up all over the globe. If you can find any information on this, please follow it up." Amos inhaled deeply.

"Your assigned towns are currently on the fax machine. On the weekends, if you are not busy, please report back to the 300th Nome. That will be all. Pleasant hunting."

Obviously, the first thing that we did was stroll over to the fax machine (yes, most of us still use those in Australia) to find out where we were going to spend the next little while.

I scanned the list for my name, and there it was, partnered with Paul. We were going to a little town called Durgham in the West of Victoria (don't Google that). Suddenly, my Samsung phone went off. A notification had popped up, an email from the first Nome.

"Well done! Paul and yourself are going to Durgham! You are enrolled in a school known as St. Brigid's College. It is a Catholic Private School , so don't try to get expelled! Paul is going to be frequenting the public school. Between the two of you, please try to find out as much as possible about the area. You are responsible for not only the town, but also the outlying areas for up to a drive of half an hour. Please don't try to get yourselves killed or the towns destroyed! Accommodation and enrollment fees, as well as food expenses, have been taken care shall reside at 12 Major Mitchell Drive."

So that was that! One good thing about being a magician is the fact that you never have to really pack. All you need to do is grab everything you need and shove it into your little storage area that they told you to create in the Duat during initiation year. It was normally four hour's drive from Melbourne to Durgham, but if you travel through the Duat, it only takes about twenty minutes.

I quickly settled in after ... negotiating about who got which bedroom.

The next month seemed to fly by. We didn't really have any problems that are worth mentioning before school started. We just settled in quietly and made some friends. We now knew the town and outlying areas fairly well, and were all ready for school to commence.


	2. Meet the Teachers

**A/N: Time for just a few more introductions, like the other main characters. The entire story is based around the idea of Sadie Kane (who may or may not come into play later in the story) that trainees should go to school and have a 'normal' life away from the Per Ankh.**

**Thanks to 'KakashiFanGirl17' for editing, along with another friend, and thanks to 'theriptide45' for reviewing!**

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Finally, the first day of school had arrived! After collecting our books the day before, and sorting out all the necessities for life at secondary school (or you might refer to it as 'middle school', such an uncivilised term), it was time to go find out what life was like outside of Per Ankh. Paul had to catch the bus to school because he had no one to drive him, and he was far too lazy to walk or ride a bike. Luckily, St Brigid's, unlike the Durgham College, is very close to where we were living, so I just walked.

The first task of the day was to discover which homeroom, and by extension, house I was in. At St. Brigid's College, morning role taking and message reading was conducted very strangely. We were assigned to a house, each of which consisted of five homerooms. In these rooms, students from every year level would sit and chat until class was to start ten minutes later. I assumed that this was to try and get children to mingle amongst different people than their immediate social group. However, this didn't seem to to be too effective. There was no one interesting in my homeroom, sadly. Oh well. It's not like I spent much time there, anyway.

On the first day of school, homeroom extended for a whole period, used mainly to explain every day school rules. Uniform rules, detentions and other random stuff would get a mention and a quick explain. We also got our timetables for the first semester. I wasn't sure what to make of mine. Not only had I _not_ been to school for three years, but I had never been to secondary school before. It was all quite dreary, I must say. I've never slept in class, but I was very close to it.

"Make sure you are all neat and tidy, and have all your books for class, children." pealed the annoyingly nasal and high pitched voice of my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Darlsten. She was a hawk-like woman, tall and thin, with bushy eyebrows and wrinkles like a falcon's leg. I hoped I didn't have her for any classes this year, I wasn't sure that the House would cover the cost of aspirin for my headaches that her voice would certainly give me. A period with her would be like having a knife slowly slice through your arm, excruciatingly painful.

At nine-fifty, the bell went to signal that we were to assemble in the school basketball stadium. A large, blue building, it was used for PE classes (which I most certainly was not looking forward to) and assemblies such as the one I was about to endure. If you can imagine the first great feast of the year that is in the Harry Potter books, this was similar, but without the awesome flying candles, the food, and the comfortable tablesat which we could sit. We were stuck sitting on those awful staircase-like stadium seats that hurt your back. I just couldn't get comfortable.

"This year we hope that you all show great respect towards teachers and fellow peers, and help one another..."

Blah, blah, blah. This was really starting to get monotonous. As a private school, you'd expect that the selection process would wean out those who would be likely to be bratty, but who knows. I assumed that this was all formal rubbish

"Also, we have a new addition to staff this year, a Miss K. Thornton..."

**(A/N: can anyone tell me what **_**foreshadowing**_** is?)**

This Miss Thornton was a short, read-headed, lady that could be described as slightly overweight. I thought back and tried to remember my timetable. Yes, I had this woman as a teacher, but I couldn't remember what class for. Oh well. I'll soon find out.

"So remember, have fun and learn lots kids!"

With that, the whole school of around four hundred students made their way out to recess. I went and found two old friends, commonly known as Nathan and James. I had met them at primary school (or elementary school for those who don't speak Australian). Nathan, the poor kid, had nearly been sent to the Durgham College, but got in as one application pulled out here at St. B's. He had a bowl-like sandy blonde cut, eyes as blue as the sky,and a fair complexion. He stood at around 5' 9", which was really tall for a year seven. I was only 5' 4"! James wore round spectacles and was the type of kid who just seemed to pass everything easily. He was completely trustworthy and honest, although he seemed to have a way of losing everything.

"Hey Nathan! Hey James!" I hollered.

"Hey Max!" They called back.

"How were first impressions?" I asked.

"Dreary. Boring. Monotonous. This years gonna be awesome! You?" they stated in turn, exclaimed and asked all in the same line. Man, the English teachers were going to love them if they happened to be in the same class.

"Same as you." I replied. Nathan, James and I have a way of knowing pretty much what we mean without actually saying it. We're just awesome like that.

We hung out for the rest of recess. Nathan munched on some Oreos and Shapes, James had eaten an apple, while I just ate a packet of potato chips. I found out that we were going to be in the same class. Yay! This was going to be fun. Obviously, we didn't want the teachers on our backs from the first week (first impressions can make your schooling life heaven or hell, guys), but later, oh the pranks we would play!

As the bell rang, it was time for English. I had read the Ranger's Apprentice series, and knew a thing or two about subtle information gathering. I entered the room last. As I took my seat next to Nathan and James (they had obviously read the series too while I was studying at the House. He had managed to get a seat in the back corner of the room. Best place to hear everything without being conspicuous, something caught my eye. Well, not really something, more like some_one_. A skinny girl, with long, brown hair, a slightly freckled complexion and, amazing eyes. Stormy grey eyes that seemed to burn into your soul. She was probably the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my entire short life. She was sitting next to a girl with blonde hair, who seemed to give off an aura of "don't cross me or I'll stab you while your sleeping." I decided that I wouldn't stare at her for too long, and shuffled along to my seat.

The teacher walked in, whom I recognised as Miss Thornton. The role was about to be called. This was an excellent time to gather intelligence. If a person knows what they are listening for, they can often tell a few things about a person without ever having known them, just from the sound of their voice, and the tones they use.

"Josh" the teacher called.

"Yeah, I'm here." A shorter kind of kid with short, curly red hair replied.

From the way he just slightly mumbled, and spoke in a deeper tone using brief words, I could tell that this kid was not really the smartest kid on the block. In fact, I wouldn't be particularly amazed to find that he was the dumbest kid on the block. Sadly, as a few more names were called, I realised that the school doesn't really refer to kids by their last names unless they absolutely have to. That certainly was going to make things a little more interesting.

"James" the teacher called.

"Absent!" He called back. Poor kid had a way of mixing up everything.

The teacher just raised an eyebrow.

"Nathan" Miss Thornton called. She had a strange sort of voice, very hard to describe. Imagine the screech of metal on metal combined with the sound of sandpaper rubbing wood, all done on the other side of a water wall. As I said, hard to describe and hard to imagine.

"Present" Nathan answered.

"Sophie" called the teacher.

"Here." replied a clear voice, coming from the location of the aforementioned beautiful girl. So that was her name...

I suddenly felt a sharp elbow in my rib, as I heard the teacher say:

"Max, are you here?"

"Yes!" I said a little too harshly. It seemed that I had become lost in imaginings, and had temporarily become deaf for a moment. "I'm sorry, Miss Thornton"

"And rightly so."

"Ariana."

"Here**,"** called a high-pitched-ish voice, coming from the mouth of the blonde girl sitting next to Sophie. Her voice pretty much matched everything that her aura suggested. She could be a helpful ally...

"Glad to know that somebody is!" The teacher said, a little unfairly. Everybody sniggered, except me.

"Jack"

"I'm here, Miss Thornton" came a sheepish voice from a boy in the other back corner. He was a little sickly looking, with long-ish curly brown hair and freckles.

A few more names were called, and then it was into introductions and stuff. As usual, this was boring so I did something a little dangerous and very good for learning. I lowered my vision into the Duat.

In the Duat, everything is a little different. Everything is still there, but it's a tad darker, and people look different. You can see magic coming off people. The stronger the magic in their blood, the bigger and brighter the aura. I obviously can't see mine, but I have been told that it is a big, bright purple aura. As for everyone else, they all have different colours. Most people had a small aura. They were obviously normal mortals, but a few people were different. Nathan, I had never noticed this before, but he had a big bright blue aura surrounding him. It was like he was in shining blue armour made of light. Jack, his wasn't as big, but his was bigger than most. His aura was a bright green, the colour of a healthy wheat crop while it's still growing. Interestingly enough, the only three other people in the class who had a notable aura were;

Ariana, she had a bright yellow-y white aura, it was definitely the biggest in the class;

Miss Thornton, she was bright red... almost like... nah, there couldn't be a connection, surely;

and Sophie. Like Nathan, she had a big, bright blue aura, but it was more of a dark blue.

James had a hot pink aura (don't tell him I said that!) that was about one third the side of Nathan's.

Interesting...

Perhaps this year was going to be more fun than either Nathan, James or I could have imagined at the start.

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**Authors Notes: I hope this was descriptive enough for you guys. If anything is unclear, put it in the review that you _know_ that you are _dying _to do, and I'll see if I can tie it in the next chapter. Review and favorite guys :)**

**Also, check out lotusflowerlove6's stories if you want to read some actually half-decent fanfics. :~)**


	3. Card Games Not on Motorcycles

**A/N: Thanks to my ever diligent editors (KakashiFanGirl17 and another friend) and thanks to Louisa4533 for reviewing. Can you guess what each of the characters are meant to be yet?**

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Some say that time flies when you are having fun. I beg to differ. The next few weeks of school flew by very quickly and uneventfully. I tried to make a few new friends, and found that it wasn't so hard. I'm a pretty clever kid, and soon I had a reputation for knowing the answers, much to my annoyance. It becomes difficult toget much work donewhen everybody else wants help. Thankfully, year seven didn't include too much of that awful thing that most teenagers refer to as schoolwork. Work at school was not too bad. Homework, now that's a different story. Maths was particularly bad in this regard, because most maths questions required that you lug a five kilogram (or ten pound) text book all the way home and back again the next day. If only adults would learn that some things just don't bear doing.

I attempted something new one morning. I decided to sit next to Jack in English. As I approached the dull, mottled grey table at which he was seated, his expression changed, as if there was an odd odour in the air. Once I had sat down, he seemed to go back to normal, however. He was a shy kid, he didn't hang around anybody, really, except James. Interestingly enough, most people thought that he would be the target for bullies, like that Josh character. I had never seen anybody do anything to him however, although James did treat him a bit roughly. James was a relatively smart kid, he was a good singer and a formidable opponent in a fight. That might explain why Jack hung around him so much...

Jack didn't say too much while in class. He worked at an average speed, but fast enough to not incura penalty, homework. He seemed friendly though, and I decided I'd hang out with him a little more.

Periodically, the evil teacher, Miss Thornton, would walk around the room checking that we were working. As she moved to our table, Jack seemed to go much paler. He looked like he was about to be sick. The teacher ignored this, and continued moving around the room. Not long after she had resumed her seat at the front of the room, Jack looked better. I made a mental note to ask him about this later. He never had to participate in PE, either. It seemed that he had a note from his parents saying that he had a knee issue, and couldn't run. He loved food of any kind. It seemed that his parents never packed him enough, because he was always scavenging for anything that people didn't want to eat.

Our maths teacher, Mr Marland was a nice guy that I had met a few years earlier while playing cricket. He was nice, but tall and slightly overweight. He had short hair, wore big round, glasses like an old person might wear. He had been teaching for years, and knew what he was doing. He never seemed to give us too much work, and although he told us to get any leftovers done for homework, he never seemed to mark these. He liked to do a lot of questions on the whiteboard, and would get kids to answer them. More often than not, he asked the kids who he had worked out to be the smartest, and he seemed to pick on Sophie a lot. I would swear that a quarter of all questions went to her, and I'd never heard her get one wrong. Maths was one of the better classes.

Unlike maths, however, SOSE (or humanities) was a horrible class. We had the oppressive Miss Thornton for this. She seemed to like to terrorise everybody with extreme boredom. The SOSE elements we were completing involved study of Ancient History. We started with Egypt, which was torture for me. I know that learning magic originating from Egypt should make this my favourite class, but I knew most of the answers. My answers didn't correspond with the curriculum, however. It was almost comical to know what archaeologists have tried to guess about Egypt.

"Can anybody tell me why Egyptian Kings were buried in pyramids?" The loathsome teacher asked.

My hand shot up instantly.

"A pyramid held vast amounts of magical power. Being buried in one basically meant that the Pharaoh and his family's ghosts could live there comfortably and safely for as long as the structure stood. The pyramid was a ramp to the heavens."

"Incorrect, Max. Pyramids were an item that was used in worship of the sun god, Re. Perhaps you should read from the textbook next time, before answering questions that are given in the book."

She, and the book, really were stupid. That's not even the sun god's name! It's Ra!

At lunch times, my friends and I would play card games. Occasionally, a few of the girls would come and try their hand against our best. James was a boss gambler. I hadn't ever seen him lose chips in blackjack, and he just smashed us all at poker. It was fun to try your luck, though. This particular day, Sophie, Ariana and a friend of theirs named Christine were playing.

"Blackjack" I called. I had a Joker and an eight.

"Bummer, I had sixteen" replied Nathan.

The hand was re-dealt and I got the pot.

This was the first decent opportunity that I'd had to study Ariana. She had electric blue eyes, flowing strawberry blonde hair and slightly tanned skin. She seemed to resemble a few of the roman statues that I had seen. She wore 6 earrings that looked more like knife blades hanging nearer her shoulders. She had a black leather and iron bracelet on her left arm. She was also a hopeless gambler.

"Hit me." She called. I wasn't even sure if she had seen her cards yet.

"Bust." Jack guessed. He always dealt. He was right. Twenty seven. She started with twenty. She threw her cards in. Sophie sat. She had an amazing poker (or blackjack, I suppose) face. Strike that, she has an amazing face all the time, but she kept a very straight one while playing. I was next, so I sat on twenty. No one raised, so we flipped our cards. Sophie won, twenty Joker high. She was good. No one had twenty one so she won.

In the end, I lost, so I had to pack up. I received some really shocking hands. Sophie came around to question me.

"What's that drawing on your tongue?"

I had forgotten about it completely. On the first day during initiation in the first nome in Egypt, they tattoo the symbol of Ma'at on your tongue to help you speak magic clearly. Obviously, if you stuff up magic, you will more than likely die, so it was kind of important.

"You can see that?" I questioned. No one had ever said anything about it before. Amos told us that it was invisible to the mortal eye.

"Yes. A tattoo on your tongue is hard to miss." she said, pointedly.

"Oh. Well, it's an Egyptian Hieroglyph." I explained.

"What does it say?"

"It is the glyph for Ma'at, or Order and peace." I revealed.

"Why is it on your tongue?" she asked.

"My parents had it tattooed there when I was ten." I replied. It wasn't the complete truth, but it would have to do. I had no idea if she knew about magic, but better not to tell. Her grey eyes seemed to frown. I didn't think she believed me, but perhaps she would find out later.

"You have strange parents." she said.

"I do." I replied.

She really was _very_ pretty.

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**Authors Notes: Some action should come soon guys.**

**Please review, you know you want to. :~)**

**Any tips would be appreciated. My friendly editors probably want something easier to fix.**

**BTW. Foreshadowing, as mentioned in the last chapter, is when something is predicted. It may come as a feeling, either good or bad. That bad feeling you sometimes may get, that is an example of foreshadowing. Random pieces of information may be foreshadowing. Thank you to Louisa4533 for saying this.**


	4. What the Heck is Happening Here!

**A/N: Thanks to Louisa4533 again for reviewing... sort of.**

**I've had a little trouble writing this chapter. Ever known what is meant to happen, but you don't want to put it in just yet? I need some fillers.**

**Thanks again to my very helpful and friendly editor, KakashiFangirl17 and a few extra friends. I owe you.**

**Now for the story:**

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I finally decided to ask Jack what was wrong the other day in English.

"Hey Jack?" I called.

"Yes?" He replied.

"What was up with you in English the other day, when the teacher came around to our desk, and you looked like you were about to throw up?" I questioned.

"Erm... nothing. She just smelled really bad. Did I really look like I was about to throw up?" He managed to maintain his composure. He seemed a little startled at the question.

"Yeah. I was a bit worried. I didn't want to smell like vomit all day! It's true! Call me insensitive, but it's not a good feeling.**"**

"Oh. Ok then."

"She does smell bad, doesn't she?"

"Yep.**"**

We left it at that.

Nothing notable happened for a couple of weeks. I discovered the name of Sophie's quiet friend. She was Nadia, a girl with copper coloured hair and hazel eyes. She was shorter than the average, standing at about 5'2". Other than this, therewas the constant oppression of Miss Thornton on all of us. Unfortunately, the main bearers of this were Nathan, Sophie, Ariana and myself. Even skeptical little oldme thought that this couldn't be coincidence. We put up with it, I suppose.

The time was coming though, when the school was going to be attacked by monsters. There was no way that the amount of magic present in the school would be totally ignored by monsters forever. One day during a class, maths, I think, I was extremely bored. I had taken to looking out the window during these times. This time, I noticed a few little people wandering around on the back streets around our school. This was not unusual, kids from the Durgham College often wagged class. The dots continued to grow bigger as time went by. It soon became apparent to me that these weren't College kids, and there was more than just a few. Nathan was hard at work next to me. After struggling to get his attention, I pointed them out, wondering if he could see them.

"I have no idea what they are meant to be, but they don't look like they want to give us hugs and lollipops," He said.

"Agreed. Do you want to find out more?" I asked.

"OK."

Nathan and I meandered up to the front of the class.

"Mr. Marland, I need to get a drink,"I said.

Nathan made a similar excuse for himself.

As we moved into the centre courtyard, I grabbed my magically enchanted pen that was given to meat the start of this assignment, and started to draw on my arm.

"What are you doing?" Nathan questioned.

"Drawing camouflage hieroglyphs on myself. Want some?" I answered.

"How are little symbols going to stop us being seen?"

"Magic, Nathan. Magic."

He looked extremely skeptical, but he let me drawthem on him anyway.

We continued out of the Eastern Gate. As we drew nearer the beings that were obviously heading towards the school, Nathan took what looked to be a foot long stick out of his back pocket. Don't ask me how it fit in there, it just did.

"How is a stick going to be useful? It's worse than my glyphs!" I said.

Nathan looked hurt.

"It isn't a stick, it's a wand."

"A wand. As in, a magic stick? That's ridiculous!" I laughed.

"It is not, watch. _Lumos._" He waved his stick-wand thingy in a spiral motion, and it's end startedto glow.

"Did you just say 'Lumos,' and it caused the stick to light up?" I questioned. This was just getting a little weird.

"Yes. I also waved my wand in a particular fashion. It's Magic, Max. Magic."

Way to throw my own words back at me.

I was still not convinced that it would help all that much if trouble came, so I decided to draw my staff and wand out of the Duat. I have a small room that I use like a portable locker. In it, I held my staff and wand. The wand looks like an ivory boomerang, I suppose you'd say, although it was thicker and not bent as far. You definitely didn't throw it. The staff was just a long cedar stick really, with a dragon's head carved onto the top end. It was used for offence, and the staff for defence. The wand could also be used to draw hieroglyphs, but a fine tip pen is easier on the skin.

"That... was impressive. What the heck are those things? Did you just create them out of thin air?"

"No, silly. They are a wand and staff." I held them up as I stated their names. "I summoned them from the Duat. And the Duat, I shall explain that at a later date."

"What do they do? The staff and wand, that is,"

"Magic. I'll show you soon."

We finally came into view of these beings about five hundred metres from the school. They were obviously troll like creatures. 10' tall, fat creatures. They were truly brutish. Nothing in your life will ever prepare you for the sight of one of those, I swear. There was about ten of them. As soon as they saw us, (sensory glyphs don't work well on monsters, especially ones designed for use against teachers) they screamed a battle cry and charged at us.

"_Petrificus Totalus!_" Nathan cried. I couldn't tell what the wand movement for that was. One of the trolls fell over, as if frozen. It started to turn into a pile of sand.

"_A'max_" I yelled. A blue hieroglyph shone in the air, and a stream of fire erupted from the dragon head on my staff. A troll was then running around like a flaming headless chicken, all the while disintegrating into sand.

Nathan said something incomprehensibly, and suddenly, on of the troll's noses started to get bigger. It was truly horrible looking. A large green ball rolled out of each of it's nostrils. I realised that this was it's snot. It grew green wings and started to attack the troll. It started to run around madly, and Nathan looked like he was about to follow up with a more powerful hex, but he was cut off as the troll disintegrated into sand. Standing behind the troll was James. He had his right hand placed as if he had just punched someone, and didn't recoil from it. Protruding from just under his fist was a short, dull brown blade. I realised that this came from the watch that looked like a large metal bracer, that he always wore.

There were seven trolls left, and they were about to get us.

"_Ha-wi_" I cried. Another glyph sizzled in the air. A troll started to move around like he was being punched from all angles. He quickly disintegrated.

Six to go. Nathan and I were about to try once more to cast some spells, and James drew a short sword in the same colour as the hidden blade, which he had now retracted. The was no need, however. All at once, a troll fell over with an arrow protruding from its head. A seemingly random bit of lightning hit a troll and it crumpled like an old bag. A quick flash of bronze showed, and two trolls fell and disintegrated. Standing there was a slightly dishevelled, and very beautiful Sophie, holding a four foot sword the colour of James'. The last two trolls just ran away in fright. It was little wonder. A grumpy looking Ariana, and a lithe Nadia appeared from the trees. Nadia was holding a bow, Ariana a dagger. I was extremely surprised.

"What on Earth are you three doing here?" I asked. The shock on both James and Nathan's faces must have mirrored my own surprise.

"Sophie saw you leave and was curious as to why you left all at once. She left to have a look, and we followed her." Ariana stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world**.**

"We saw the monsters and decided to help." Nadia claimed.

Nathan, as always, put a damper on things.

"We'd better get back to class, or Mr. Marland is going to eat our faces."

"We have three minutes till the end of the period, so we'd better make it snappy." James said.

Thankfully, we made it back just in time. I remembered the camouflage glyphs just as we walked in the door. Obviously, we couldn't all charge in there at once, that would not look good at all. We went in the same order that we went out. Nadia and Ariana only just got back in before the bell. We were told to stay behind. Oh, joy. He didn't sound happy.

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**Authors Notes: So now we all know what's what, sort of. More coming soon, I promise. I know that Egyptian hieroglyph magic didn't work exactly like that, but too bad. Also, the incantation for the bat-bogey hex is not known, so sorry guys. :)**

**Reviews would be very appreciated, along with tips in those reviews.**


	5. Who's What, When and Why?

**A/N: Thanks to theriptide45 and Steven3270 for reviewing.**

**As you may be able to see, I have changed the title and description of the story. A friend of mine who finally got back to me on some details, also known as Nathan in this story, suggested that a plot description is better than what I had. He also suggested a heap of plot points. Kudos to you mate!**

**Also, I definitely do not own Starkid or A Very Potter Musical (if you've seen it, you'll get the quote)**

**Story time:**

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"Why did you go and fight those trolls?" Mr Marland interrogated us. "Do you realise how much explaining and paperwork I would have to do if one of you died in that battle?"

"Wait just a sec. You could see us, even with invisibility charms?" Sophie asked.

"Yes."

"How? Why can you see us?" Ariana queried.

"This may come as a shock, but you kids aren't the only demigods out there." Mr. Marland replied.

"We know that some make their own way through life, and become successful themselves, like George Washing-" Sophie was cut off by Mr. Marland.

"No, no. Not like that. I went to Camp Half-Blood as a teenager. I am a child of Hermes." Mr. Marland revealed.

"Oh, so when we snuck out of class, following James, who was following Max and Nathan, you were watching us?" Ariana inquired.

"Out of the corner of my eye, yes. I saw the whole battle. I must say, you took out the trolls exceedingly fast, even for six of you."

Demigods. Camp Half-Blood. Random teachers who can see through my camo-glyphs and protection amulets. This was all going straightover my head.

"Hold up just a second. What is a demigod? Where is Camp Half-Blood? What is going on here?" I had to ask.

"Being able to see trolls but not knowing this? Where did you get an education?

A demigod is a child of a god, Greek or Roman. Before you ask, yes the Greek and Roman gods are not only real, but very much alive and kicking today. Sadly, so are their enemies. Camp Half-Blood is a small camp on Long Island Sound in America. One of the very few safe places for demigods to stay. Monsters attack demigods, but rarely the camp. The more a demigod knows about the Greek and Roman gods and stories, the higher chance they have of being attacked. Have I missed anything?" Mr. Marland was a fairly good teacher. This was a lot to take in, but stuff had started to make sense now.

"I don't think so. My turn to ask a question. What's with the boomerang and staff? Why does Nathan carry a stick that clearly shoots some form of magic, and how did James see the trolls?" Sophie's questions were always to the point

"Answer to question one. This (I redrew the wand from the duat) is a wand, not a boomerang. It is made of ivory, and does not function like a boomerang whatsoever. It is for magical defense. The staff is the opposite, it's for attacking. I can write in hieroglyphs and do magic stuff. I'm awesome like that. Another important piece of information, is that the Egyptian gods are also alive and roaming the Earth. More on this later. Nathan?" I explained and asked. I hoped it made sense.

Nathan had been quiet until now.

"This (he motioned to his wand in his back pocket) is a wand also, not a stick. Ever read Harry Potter? It is all one hundred percent true. I was sent to Hogwarts at the age of eleven. I am being sent here by the ministry of magic to survey the Australian curriculum. I was the best second year wizard in my grade last year. I'm awesome like that. Also Pigfartsis a real school on Mars, but I doubt any of you would know about it. It wasn't in the books." Nathan summed his story up well enough. I was actually starting to understand things.

James also decided to tell his short story.

"I am a regular mortal, sort of. I can see through that thing you Greeks call the 'mist' or you magicians would call 'the shroud'. I trained in the arts of unarmed and armed combat with my Dad for ages. I am what most would call a training weapons master. My Dad is obviously a weapons master, ninja, assassin and he has a black belt in taekwando and other random and lesser known martial arts, like chun kuk do. I got this (he activated his wristy-bladey thingy) as a twelfth birthday present. It is not only lethal, it tells the time." This explained so much to me now. Except...

"I suppose while we are doing introductions, I should put my word in. I'm a Greek demigod, daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, knowledge and battle strategy. I stay at Camp Half-Blood sometimes, but we are being spread to schools to find more half-bloods, or demigods, for training. We have to help the satyrs because they are spread so thin after the Titan war." That was obviously Sophie. Explains the grey eyes I suppose.

I guess I haven't mentioned this yet, but I actually did a massive amount of research on Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods a while back. I was really interested in them. I guess I know why now.

"I'll explain myself _after_ we get to the next class, we are ridiculously late right now. Why are you detaining us Mr. Marland?" Ariana was right. We were at least ten minutes late.

"I am just going to tell you that you should let me me know if you are planning on fighting anymore monsters during my class, although come quietly, and only ask me. All the other teachers and the rest of the students as far as I can tell are regular mortals. They couldn't see you before, and obviously won't know anything about monsters. See you later. Oh, and here's a note to keep your science teacher happy." Always thinking ahead, Mr Marland.

We were the last people into science. Fifteen minutes late, the class was completely silent when we opened the door. Six disheveled students must have looked funny walking through the door. Actually, make that five disheveled students and a Sophie. She looked impeccable, as always. That made me a little confused. This would make sense if she was a daughter of Aphrodite, but Athena? Not so much. I made a mental note to quiz her on this later.

"Why are you so late?" The teacher questioned.

"Mr Marland detained us for.. Er... Extra curricular activities. We have a note." I said a little perplexed. I had read the note, briefly, but the words escaped my mind. I had to double check.

Of course, science was boring. I soon realized why Sophie and Ariana always looked like they were about to fall asleep in this class. I always had a reason to be bored in such a mundane class. We knew that the gods controlled the weather and how stuff works. Why bother teaching or learning this primitive, foolish over-detailed rubbish. To quote the great Sherlock Holmes: "the human memory is like an attic. The more it fills with stuff, the harder it is to find the things you want. It is foolish to believe that this attic is bottomless or has elastic sides and can just expand. At some point it will become completely full. So why fill the mind with useless rubbish that isn't in the least helpful nor true?"

We elected to shut out the boring teacher, so we continued our discussion. Nathan and I cast some spells to make it look as if we were paying attention to what the teacher was trying to force-feed us. It was easier because, being last in, our desks were all next to each other.

"So Ariana, what's your story?" Nathan asked.

"I am a Roman demigod. Daughter of Jupiter, praetor of the twelfth legion. Check this out." She pulled back the sleeve of her left jumper to reveal a black tattoo of an eagle with multiple lines shown underneath it, sort of like a barcode. She also drew two knives from a seemingly hidden sheath on her back, and placed them on the table. They looked as if they were made from solid gold.

"A-are they _gold?_" Nathan had to ask.

"Yep. Imperial gold. Normal gold would be useless in a fight, but this is special stuff."

"I heard that there was like, none of that stuff left in existence. We use celestial bronze for our weapons." Of course that was Sophie. She drew her sword, four feet of a coppery colour metal. Thank goodness that noone could see and hear this due to our spells. Im sure the teacher would have fainted.

"Actually, the bronze is meant to be way rarer than this gold. It is said to be more powerful." Interesting. I guessed that the Greeks and Romans didn't normally share trade secrets.

"What about you, Nadia? You've been pretty quiet through all this." That was James.

"Oh, I've just been processing all this. I hadn't heard any of this. I have seen monsters before, but I thought that it was normal. I'm a Christian, you see."

Ariana had something to say to this, apparently.

"Interestingly, the gods, both Greek and Roman, while being a primeval forces, much like the West (and that is a discussion for another day) aren't seemingly all that's in control of the Earth. I'm not referring to the titans, Gaea or the giants either. There is a distinct possibility that there is a supreme ruling God over everything."

"Okay then." Said Nadia, very drawn out like. I thought I understood what Ariana was trying to say, but I guess Nadia didn't so much.

"She says that God could exist as well as all the Greeco-Roman and Egyptian gods." Sophie was a handy translator.

"Ooooh. That makes more sense now." Nadia had worked it out.

The bell than decided to break up our conversation.

Nothing interesting happened during double health. It had to be the most boring subject ever, including science. Tables were set in twos to discourage talking. Of course, in a small room, that didn't stop us talking, it just made it slightly more inconvenient. Nathan and I sat at our usual table. Sophie and Ariana sat at one near the front. Nadia sat with a blonde girl named Bec, who didn't really possess the stereotyped attributes of blondes, but just liked to hide behind her hair colour if she said or did something stupid. Must be nice to have that ability.

I don't remember much of that class, except that I nearly fell to sleep a few times. The silence spells must have hit me harder than I realised. Thankfully, Nathan kept me awake. After listening to the health teacher moan on about identity for an hour and a half, the bell graciously ended our suffering.

During lunch, we played card games again. This time, it was a great game called Mau. If you've never played Mau, you won't know the rules. My rules are simple. Don't talk, don't discuss rules during a point of order (the only time in a game that you can talk) and, you have to work out the rest of the rules yourself. Oh, and you can't watch, you have to play. The game is similar to Uno, but with a heap of extra rules to make the game more confusing. I wont bore you with these, because it's against the game's rules to tell you, and it is more fun to learn in game.

"What are you guys doing this weekend?" I addressed Nathan, James and the three girls.

"Not much. Why are you interested?" Nathan said that, of course.

"I wanted to know if you would like to come to my place. I have heaps of room, and it's got stuff for training. If we are going to continue working together to fight monsters, we may as well train together." I stated.

"What makes you think it would be better than my place, Max?" James asked. I guess, with his dad being a weapons master and all, he would have a lot of stuff for training.

"We have Xbox." I said. And that shut him up. He only had a PS3. Paul, my flatmate, and I had one of these also, but he need not know that.

"We're in. Where is your house?" asked Ariana, speaking for the girls.

"12 Major Mitchell Drive, on the East side of the river, near the BP servo there." I said.

"Ok, see you there Saturday, 9'o clock-ish?" asked Nathan.

"Sounds good. If you want to bring some training stuff, please do, by all means. Also, if you need a place to stay, we've got heaps of room." I said.

"See you there then. James?" I questioned.

"Ok, I'll come."

"Excellent!"

This was going to be interesting.

* * *

Authors Notes:

So, not so much happens this chapter. Just a little lead into more action. Or... not so little. Oh well. If you are having problems working out the plot... So am I! I know whats coming, and I hope it clears it up for you in coming chapters. It took a bit to finish this chapter. I seemed to lose motivation as school came back.


	6. Fight Night, or Day

**A/N: Thanks to Louisa4533, as always, for reviewing, and to my editors, KakshiFanGirl17 and a few other friends. You guys help more than you know.**

**If there are any unintended (or maybe intended?) references to anything (including LittleKuriboh references, that have featured few times so far), I don't own it.**

**Sorry this hasn't updated in a while, I've been learning some Darren Criss songs, and writing some apps for my little bros phone, as well as sound engineering our school's Musical, Joseph and the Technicoloured Dream Coat, along with James' Dad, who helped me out with his digital soundboard. Ariana, James and Sophie were all cast in the show, and did a magnificent job. Nathan was in stage crew, and also did marvelously.**

**Now, enough about my life, and down to business.**

* * *

Friday went in a blur. Nothing interesting happened. We just did some music theory and programming. I came back to the house, and grabbed my guitar. A beautiful piece of equipment, it is a red Washburn acoustic steelstring. I was a little bored, so I started playing Cat Stevens "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out." I love old music. No one writes like the Cat did. My hands drifted over the chords, and soon the song was over. I'm not much of a singer, but I can handle most of his songs. My mind automatically drifted into a quieter, more classic acoustic style of song, "Father and Son" by the same man. This song is absolutely beautiful, and sends a shiver up my spine every time I hear or play it. Then, I remembered our conversation from lunchtime on Thursday. Oh dear! I had better start to clean up the house.

It was an older style white weatherboard house with four bedrooms and no garage (what thirteen year old can legally drive, anyway?) My room was the neatest, with a blue carpet, white walls and a nice carving on the roof. The door was covered in protective hieroglyphs, stopping noise from exiting the room, as well as most monsters and… unwanted guests from entering. A massive bookshelf covered the south wall, along with my desk and laptop. My bed was under the window (glyphed to stop people seeing into the room, of course). It was the neatest room in the house, aside from the books and scrolls that were neatly stacked on the floor (I like books. What more must I say?).

Paul's room was the messiest in the house, and it smelled. Badly. Green carpet lined the floor, his walls were a very light brown, and he had chip packets and food crumbs all over the floor. I made a mental note to make him clean it up later. He had a telly connected to a PS3 (the inferior console) -

[Ow! Nathan! I just stated the truth. Geez. Fanboy.]

- and game cases surrounding it. The room screamed 'slob' at you. He didn't read much, and was not a programmer, musician, or anything really. Don't tell him, but he wasn't even that good at gaming.

The most interesting room in the house (excluding the kitchen) was definitely the room dubbed 'music room'. It boasted purple carpet and blue walls, and was filled with all sorts of musicians' toys. Five guitar amps, three bass amps, four basses and six guitars, two keyboards, a high-end drum kit and a few odds and ends for different musical variety, like a flute and a saxophone, were its contents. It also had a top of the line Mackie mixing desk, four RCF 400 watt full range speakers, three set up microphones, at least 1 effects pedal set up for each instrument, and many more of these things packed away in drawers for gigs that someone wants done at short notice, along with countless metres of leads to make everything work. (I like music. A lot.) This was the most expensive room in the house, free of rubbish and low quality components. Obviously, it had every protection imaginable on it, to stop fire, water or anything short of a nuke from damaging anything. I spent way too many hours in this room, but it was my pride and joy.

One other room, the study I guess one might call it, was awesome. It had five high-end computers - one of them a mac, two Linux, and the rest Windows machines - in it. It also had my Xbox and PS3 hooked to a big LED telly. This was my development room. I spent too much time here, too, but it was my income. Games, mods for games and other apps were what I did. Who said that being a nerd didn't get you places?

The rest of the house was boring and not unusual. A computer was in each one to allow constant access to the internet and incoming messages. Life was good. Other than the odd bit of litter around the house (Paul's of course) there wasn't much cleaning to do. This description of my house might make me sound nerdy and high-tech, but I didn't do much else, and despite all this, I don't even have a Facebook account! Who needs it? Not I. Out the back of the house was my makeshift cricket net (cricket is the greatest game in the world, do not let anyone tell you otherwise) and a heap of training equipment. Straw dummies littered the ground, some burnt, some broken, some cursed. Other weapons that a mage wouldn't normally use were stacked in a rack near the river. I dragged the used dummies into a pile in the corner of the yard. It was nearly 5:30pm when I was finished, but the yard looked neater and less disheveled now. I guess that I had to clean up the veggie patch for a little too, there were pumpkins growing out everywhere. There were even vines in the apple tree! I threw the old vines that I cut onto the compost heap next to the river. It smelled a bit, but was not bad. Being bored, I picked up a cricket ball and started to bowl in my net. The little red leather nugget sailed at 95 kilometers an hour into the back of the net. I started to get into a rhythm after a few minutes of bowling, and soon was covered in sweat.

Vicious in-swingers were followed by malicious bouncers, aimed to knock a batsman off guard if he was not concentrating. A few balls cut off the white seam, moving savagely left or right unexpectedly. They were my favourite deliveries.

Paul came home at about 6:30, and interrupted my training session. He frequently came home late, and often came at unusual times. I was not surprised. Attending the Durgham College, he probably had lots of really bad friends. You know what I mean by that. There are always kids who you know are going to get in trouble. The 'popular' the 'sporty', the 'special needs'. They always seem to have a way of getting in trouble or doing something stupid. I was free from having friends of this sort, but my class was full of them. I told Paul to clean up his room, because we had visitors coming.

"What are you Max? My mother?" Was his reply. Then he went and cleaned up.

The next morning came far too quickly. Waking up at 7:30, I went for a quick stroll down the street, after breakfast. Being a Saturday, I normally would have taken a long run or row up the river, but I had people coming. The cool Autumn breeze on my face woke me up alarmingly quickly. I arrived back at the house at 8-ish. Paul was still asleep at his PS3, where he must have dozed off the night before. I left him there. His neck cramps would be sore for the next week, and should provide much amusement for me.

I went and played some Minecraft while I waited for the five to arrive. Darn creepers exploding all over my virtual world. I had trouble getting a house up, failing until I heard the doorbell. The button for the bell is an awesome hieroglyph, an Isis knot (or a _tyet_ for the more Egyptian readers). I linked it and the internet phone call system up through a PA that can be heard all over the house. It is magic, of course. At the door was both a beautiful looking Sophie, with a pink and charcoal checked hoodie, and blue jeans, and Ariana, wearing a very furry looking hooded coat, and jeans also.

"Come on in! Welcome to my house. I'll give you a quick tour if you like. By the way, nice coat, Ariana. Which roadside did you pick that up from?"

The girls accepted the tour, and ignored my road kill comment, so I showed off the slightly more interesting rooms of the house, aside from the basic facilities.

"That is a lot of music gear you have there. Mind if I have a play?" Asked and stated Ariana.

"No, go ahead! Let me start the system up for you."

She drifted towards a keyboard, and started to play. I turned on the power and set the sound going.

"That's loud! Won't the neighbours get angry?" asked Sophie.

"The room is magically soundproofed. No one outside of this room can hear anything that goes on in here. We, however, can hear what goes on out there." I said, as I bent over to plug in a bass. My trained ear could hear that she was playing a Darren Criss song. His music is legendary. I can't remember now which one though.

The doorbell went off, and I went to answer it. James and Nathan were at the door, and I could see Nadia off in the distance.

"Come on in. Enjoy your stay here."

They stepped inside. I took them for the same quick tour that I had the girls before. As we entered the music room, James let out a low whistle.

"Wow! That is a lot of gear. And it's all pretty new too! Nice!"

He walked over to the other keyboard, where a microphone was set up. He started playing some really fancy sounding classical accompaniments to Ariana's current song. I think the doorbell woke Paul up, because he walked past, and saw us all jamming. By now, Sophie had picked up the miked up flute, and started something pretty. Nadia was just listening intently, and Nathan looked as if he wanted to pick up my old, red Telecaster, but didn't know what to make of it. Paul walked in, and just shook his head. He listened mostly to the more crummy 'music' that they like to play on the 'hit' radio stations these days. He never really learned what good music was. He walked out again, after looking around at us all, shaking his head a few times, and listening in for a few minutes.

Eventually, we had to stop playing, much to the sadness of Ariana. It was 12 o'clock, so we went and had lunch. Lamb burgers for all! My cooking was not bad, even if I do say so myself. Beetroot, lettuce, lamb and barbecue sauce is a delicious combination, surprisingly.

After lunch we got down to business.

James decided to try out all our sword skills. Nathan went first. They each grabbed an enchanted sword, designed to instantly suit the wielder perfectly, and dull the blade. Nathan seemed to have a very aggressive style of combat, launching an overhead strike instantly at James, who sidestepped the downward blow with ease. Nathan proceeded to launch attack after attack furiously at James. He seemed very angry. James simply avoided the badly placed blows or parried them without much effort. They then seemed to pause as they locked blades. I could see very clearly that Nathan was already tired from his angry exertions.

James then took on the offensive. Side-arm, overhand, underhand, overhead, all very well placed blows, expertly delivered. Nathan was barely managing to get his sword up in time to block each one. James blade whirred slowly, rhythmically. His hands a blur, he continued to pummel Nathan with blows. Nathan had no opportunity to strike back, and it didn't occur to him to avoid the blows. It was clear who this spar would go to.

Thirty seconds later, my prediction was realised. Nathan yielded, and swiftly proceeded to collapse. It reminded me of his style of chess play. Attempt to pummel the enemy with all his ammo, until either he made a fatal error, or he was well and truly in front. It was effective against newbies and those who have high opinions of themselves, but a little experience counters this tactic every time.

Ariana went next. As she was a knife wielder, I thought that this would be an interesting match. James wasted no time this time. He came in with an odd looking stroke that came from lower left on Ariana, and moved as if it was meant to end at her right shoulder. She parried this with ease, but looked as if she had no follow up. I was right. James' weird attack was meant so that her blade was stuck blocking his, allowing him to pivot and do a full 360 degree spin, to come back in with an overhead blow from her right. She had to side step it, or it would give her a big bruise on her neck, or separate her head from everything else with a traditional blade. This was possibly the oddest fighting style I had ever seen from James. The fight continued with James on the offensive, until they locked blades. Ariana managed to get a few strikes at him, but he fended her off easily. He then disarmed her with a clever move, twisting the blade from her grasp. A one sided fight, but more interesting that Nathan's attempt.

My turn next. James and I circled. The second year trainees had been taught by James' father in sword art (we didn't know it at the time). It seemed that he wanted to try a defensive form. After about 20 seconds, James got bored of defensives, so he came in with an overhand blow to my left. I sidestepped, and let the blade whistle past harmlessly. My turn, with an underhand blow to his right. It felt natural, but I realised that his sword was in the perfect position to parry it. We continued like this for a short time, sidestepping and parrying without too much thought. We locked blades a few times, withdrawing quickly from it with a step backwards. Getting tied up in a lock is not a good place to be. Eventually, James got sick of this, so he started to pound me with strong overhead blows. Technically, I should have just stepped around his guard as he did this, but I could see that he was being a little conservative and not 100% committing to each of the strokes. I was worried that he would pivot and take me in the hip. He ended up just bashing the sword out of my hand. That was a long fight. He must have been tired.

After a fifteen minute drinks break, Nadia came up against him. She stood gracefully poised with a blade in each hand.

"Are you sure you want to use 2 swords?" James asked. I knew why. It is hard to focus on keeping 2 blades moving and not stabbing you. Often if I tried to fight with 2 blades, one ended up hanging limply from my side, completely useless.

"Yes. I know what I'm doing." She replied.

Quickly, the fight began. Nadia was a graceful blur, both beautiful and deadly. I found myself shuffling back closer to the wall. James, of course, had no trouble keeping up to the dual lumps of metal barraging him. The fight was spectacular. I'm glad I had it on security footage. Eventually, somehow, James found himself behind her, with his blade in a perfect position to run her through. That was an amazing fight, lasting nearly ten minutes. It would take way too long to describe. Both looked as if they were going to lose at multiple points in the fight.

Finally, it was Sophie's turn. She was wise going last, leaving James waste all his energy. He had lasted well, but he was eating into his reserves of energy, we could all see it. She stood gracefully, blade twirling in small circles, as if testing the weight of the weapon. She looked as if she was ready to strike - like a hunter, poised, waiting for its prey. Wasting no time, she came in with light footsteps and a heavy overhand blow to James left, which normally, would have sliced into James' ribcage, ten centimetres above the base, had he not blocked it. She followed up by pivoting 360 degrees into an underhand aimed at the right side of James' neck. He stepped back to avoid this, then pressed his own attack, a heavy overhead blow. The fight continued, no one seeming to have any clear advantage. James again tried an overhead blow after some time trading soft shots. Sophie stepped in behind him, and brought down an overhead blow of her own. Generally, James would have twisted to avoid this, but he was a little too slow, and was caught on the right shoulder. Sophie followed this up with an underhand, stopping just before his back. She had won! She had bested the master! Crafty Greek.

* * *

**Authors Notes: So, a really long one this time. It wasn't very funny, but I ran out of words. Any more and it would have become dull and even more disinteresting. A review would be much appreciated. As you can see, I'm a cricket and music nut. I do actually play both guitar and bass. Actually, all the people mentioned in this book play the instrument i gave them (in real life) except Nathan and Sophie, who don't play, sadly. Another good author is Louisa4533. She writes amazing fantasy stories, much better that I. Check her out!**


	7. The Descriptive Chapter With No Name

**A/N: Thanks to my extremely awesome editors, KakashiFanGirl17 and others whom wish not to be named. Also thanks to Louisa4533 for reviewing, as usual. Your comments and tips help heaps!**

**I don't own anything in the story, except the plot.**

**Story time.**

* * *

By the time the practice fights had finished, it was five o'clock. We decided to grab some food and have some chill out time in the games development room.

"Why do you have all this gear, Max?" asked Nathan as he sat down in front of the PS3. He grabbed the Battlefield 3 case from my bench, but the disk was already in the console.

"I make money by developing games and apps. Who needs a real job?" I replied.

"How does that make you money?" questioned Nadia, who was frowning as she booted up my smaller Windows machine.

"I get paid by Apple for a certain number of downloads of an app. My android apps cost money, and big games companies pay me to test their games."

"Nice! I want your job. Did you test Battlefield or CoD?" Queried James, who had grabbed the other PS3 controller.

"I tested CoD: Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3. I told them that their game took little to no skill and was too dark. They don't like me anymore. Amateur gamers." I explained. (**A/N: Not Really. I wish!)**

The room filled with a chorus of 'Nice's, and 'Cool's'.

Sophie took out a pad of paper and some coloured pencils. I looked over her shoulder as she flicked through a few of the pages until she came to a fresh one.

"Those look lovely. I assume that you are the amazingly talented artist who created these." I said.

"Err... Yeah. I guess." She replied.

"I wish I could draw half as well as that. They are amazing." I told her.

"Thanks." She said in a slightly drawn out fashion, like she didn't know what to say to that.

James and Nathan were playing multiplayer on Battlefield, Ariana was playing Sims on my other Windows computer, Nadia was playing what looked like a massively difficult version of Windows Minesweeper, and Sophie was drawing some Anime character that I didn't recognise. I was checking my emails on my phone.

Nothing new, just a few game testing applications that had been declined.

I realise now that in my ADHD and excitement to get this story recorded that I haven't included a decently detailed descriptions of my companions, so here goes. I'll try my best not to offend anyone if I can.

James was tall, slightly more so than me. He had blond hair, short-ish, and had electric blue eyes. He was a medium build, and wore glasses.

Nathan, he was a bit taller than all of us, with a darkish shade of blond hair, if that makes sense. I cant find any other way to describe it. His hair was long, nearly like a bowl-cut style, but a bit thinner. He was also of medium build, also with blue eyes, but they weren't as bright as James'.

Nadia was short, but not so far that it was noticeable. She had long brown hair, reaching halfway down her back. She wore glasses, and read books. Probably not the type you'd expect to be a hero, neither a bad person (she was far too nice for that), but looks can be deceiving.

Ariana was taller, standing a full inch over my height. She had strawberry blond hair, and she'd put in some reddy-purple die at the bottom of her hairline, making for an interesting effect. Her hair came down to the bottom of her shoulder blades. She had blue eyes, that seemed to be able to make most people cower in fear if she stared at you for too long. She was sturdily built, but not overweight or anything. She had a rosey complexion, and a piercing voice that you could hear quite easily. She sang Soprano, mostly, when singing.

Sophie, well, she always looked amazing, as if she had some Aphrodite blood in her. But that's about as far as it went. She was no coward, not 'girly' as such in almost any way, besides being a girl. She was of medium build, quite wiry in fact. She had dark brown hair at a similar length to Ariana's. She was slightly shorter than Ariana, around my height in fact. She had a slightly pale complexion, with a few freckles. She boasted stormy grey eyes that either shone when she was happy or could stare daggers into you if she wasn't. Let's face it I had a crush on her, and that was what shocked me with what happened next.

I got an email from a mortal friend of mine named Oscar. Around a week ago, I had found out that I wasn't the only one who liked Sophie more than the average, and he was the other. He was two years older than us, long curly hair and some slight stubble on his face. He had an interesting personality, to say the least. The email simply said;

Max, would you mind if I asked Sophie out?

Yes, I did mind. I minded a lot. But how could I say no? It wouldn't stop him, I knew. He was bolder than I, and older. It would be mean to say no. Besides, I had a really annoying voice in my head saying "Say Yes, Say Yes!" I tried to resist, but I couldn't. I replied, "Fine, go for it. But I doubt she'll say yes." How I was wrong.

The time came that everybody had to go home, so they went, without too much ceremony. I was finding it hard not to just blurt out and tell Sophie what was probably coming. I didn't tell her though. I kept thinking how likely it was that it would be awkward if she said yes. I wandered into the kitchen and on the bench was a small pile of what looked like leather. Closer inspection revealed that this was what looked like a bracer, for the arm, and a belt filled with small knives. On top of this was a note written in what looked to be James' handwriting. It was a little bit messy, like he was in a rush, but it seemed to say something like this.

_Max, this is a small gift for you from me. If you hadn't worked out what they are, these weapons are a hidden blade, like mine, and a belt full of throwing knives. They are made out of an iron and celestial bronze alloy that a friend of mine invented, better than splicing the metal and having two sides to each item. You should find a good use for these._

_James_

An idea was forming in my mind, but I wasn't sure exactly how I could use these.

* * *

**Authors notes: So, unfortunately, no action this chapter. It will be in the next one, I promise! Also, some element to the plot will be coming in the next chapter! Finally. Nathan's real person has been asking about that.**

**Review, guys, please?**

**Tell me if something needs more explaining, because that can easily be fixed. It can be difficult writing a story, because authors tend to say something and not explain it because they don't realise that they haven't. The ideas are all floating around in our minds, but we sometimes forget to put it to paper. (When I say our, I mean me). Does anyone else suffer from this?**

**Cookies for any and all who read this! (::)(::)(::)(::)**


	8. Hard Act to Follow

**A/N: I'm back again! After having the last chapter sitting on my buggy hard drive for about three weeks, I decided to fix my fanfic filing system. It's about time, how I had it was a nightmare of a mess.**

**Thanks to Louisa4533 for reviewing, again. Your insight is very much appreciated. Also, to my friendly and awesome editors for telling me stuff.**

**I've wanted to write this chapter for a while, but it never seemed right.**

**If you hadn't been able to tell yet, this story is like my blog that is semi twisted to make a half decent story. My life is not interesting enough to make a decent story without the twist.**

**If you haven't quite got the message yet, Heddy (ie. Me) owns nothing that is remotely related to this story EXCEPT the plot.**

**That is a long start-of-chapter note sequence. Leave a comment if you read these.  
**

* * *

To my horror, the next morning, just as I was leaving my house, I got an email back from Oscar.

_Sophie said yes._

The message may have been simple and short, but I had a sudden horrible feeling in my gut, like I had just eaten half a kilo of bacon and was now regretting it. I knew that the words had to be true, but my rational mind got in the way of that. If you had seen them together before now, you could easily doubt that she would go out with him. His general mistreatment of her was enough to warrant that thought.

Women, however, are a fickle and confusing race, and her being the daughter of Athena and all didn't help a bit. I decided to try and ignore it, and get on with my day.

As I arrived at school, I went over and had a chat to Oscar before the bell went for class, but I decided not to bring Sophie up. If he wanted to talk about it he would. Later, I would realise that he was probably thinking the same thing, but hindsight doesn't exist before a conversation. He didn't even mention her name, and we were just joking around like normal.

I had decided to wear James' hidden blade and knife belt. The Shroud [or the Mist, whatever Sophie] would hide it from mortal eyes, so nothing would be out of the ordinary. Oddly, I got a few weird looks as I walked to class. I suddenly felt a little self-conscious, but I wasn't taking the belt off now. Besides, it looked cool. None of the teachers said anything, anyway.

Being a Monday, we had no real normal classes, only electives. First for me was music.

I played some bluesy tunes that reflected my mood. I was slightly hurt, a bit confused and mostly angry. Angry at myself for not acting sooner, and saying yes (why the heck did I do that?), angry at Oscar for being so upfront about it (some meditation made me realise that I would have been even worse if he hadn't asked me, but you don't think about that when your angry), but mostly I was angry at Aphrodite. She was a good target for my rage, seeing as she was meant to be in charge of all this love crap. Normally, if I was angry, I would play something very fast, aggressive and very, very loud (Clapton music, or some Led Zep, for example), but I just couldn't muster the energy.

After a brief break, all of my year had Phys Ed. For some weird and coincidental reason, this term we were studying sword skills. Obviously, James absolutely dominated this class, despite his lean, smaller figure. One problem with the schools' practice swords, though, was that they were all horribly out of balance. No one seemed to be able to get the right sword. I remembered that I had some practice blades at home that looked similar to the school's.

"Can I go to the loo?" I asked one of the teachers. A quick nod sent me on my way. I didn't plan to stay there long, though. It was coming to high noon by now, so I had to hurry. I started to chant in the doorway. Soon, a portal to my house had appeared. I ran out into my garden shed and grabbed half a dozen practice swords. They were enchanted to meet the needs of the wielder in length and weight, so they were always perfectly balanced. I ran back through the house to the portal that had formed in my front doorway. It was closing fast. I dove through...

...and hit the cubicle door. Gods of Egypt! That hurt! Someone had come through and locked all the cubicle doors from the outside. I decided it would be easiest to climb over the top, so I chucked the swords under the door, and basically leapt over the door frame. Thank goodness for cheap construction. Better places would fully enclose each cubicle - or so I thought. I said a silent thank you prayer to Bes (He is the god of luck!) and ran the 200 meters back to the oval without hindrance. Ariana obviously saw me coming, as she ran to help. The rest of the class (other than my friends, they were already having a quick bout off to one side, clearly they had pulled off each drill perfectly) were completing drills on practice dummies. Simple ones, just the slow old things they show in crappy old medieval movies.

Ariana and I quickly distributed the blades to Sophie, Nathan, James and Nadia. I could see the look on their faces, as if they had found an old friend. These swords were just so much better. Apparently, the rest of the class had completed all of the drills satisfactorily, although they all looked pretty bad at them to me. They all gathered in. I wondered why the teachers didn't tell me what we needed to do. Perhaps they thought I was doing the drills.

"Okay, now we are going to have an all-in free-for-all battle. Be careful, and do not aim for another person's head. Once you have been hit, you are out. Got it? Good." The teacher seemed to trust us way too much. Most people in the class were cheaters. As if they'd call themselves out legitimately! We'd have to hit pretty hard to get someone to actually call themselves out.

One thing that my ADHD had caused me to forget to mention was that, on the pommel of each of my blades was a small crystal. It glowed a particular colour depending on the wielder's mood. Mine was pulsing a rich red. Ariana's was yellow, as if she were content. James' was a bright green. He was looking forward to smashing the living daylights out of one or more of the annoying and arrogant boys. You know the ones. I could just see it in his eyes, and by the way he was staring at Joel, our designated public enemy number one. He was really tall, and full of himself. Just about every person in all of my year who had two pence worth of brains wanted to whack him in the face. James looked completely focused, like a lion staring down it's next kill. Joel, to his discredit, looked distracted and like he didn't care. I'm still glad that I wasn't in his position.

Nadia's was difficult to read. It was a blend between light blue and light green. Sometimes it looked like one, sometimes the other. It never changed though, just your perception. It seemed she was nostalgic, and yet, focused at the same time. She was a tough one to read. Nathan's pommel crystal was black. He was hungry, even starving. He always was.

Sophie's crystal kept changing colours every half a second. Mixed emotions, clearly. Something was up, but I just couldn't work it out. My instinct said it had something to do with Oscar, but I couldn't think of what it might be. It wasn't how you would expect, though. I had expected her crystal to be bright pink, as most people's are when they just enter a new relationship (these are very well tested crystals). Weird.

The whistle blew, throwing me out of my contemplation. Somehow,my friends and I had gathered in a small group in the centre, while everybody else was facing us. A mass of bodies rushed at us. I had to slip through them to get some maneuvering space. Someone came at me with what would have been a big overhead slice to split me into two even halves, despite the rules. I sidestepped it, moved around his back and ran the edge of my practice sword across his lower back. I gave him a pert piece of motivation to move with the flat of my sword on his backside. WHACK! I had a feeling that it would sting quite a bit, and judging by the 3 feet of air under his feet, it did. He hobbled over to the bench, but didn't sit down.

Another fella decided to try his luck against me, this time with swinging a two-handed forehand style overhand at me, like the blade was a tennis racquet. I held his blade in a lock, stepped backwards, and twisted my blade out of the lock to make his sword pass harmlessly through vacant air. I stepped forward with my right foot, and brought a mighty underhand into his left shoulder. I finished him off by pivoting around his body and poking him gently in the stomach, just above his belly button. If only the blades had paint! It would have been so much harder to cheat!

Three more came at me, all at once. They tried to surround me, and I had to duck to avoid their underhand blows. Then I found that they were stuck in a three-sword lock! Ha, too easy! I just gave them a nice souvenir on their upper thighs with the flat of my sword. They also hobbled over to the bench.

I spun around just in time to see James send Joel reeling. I could see red marks all over his arms. It seemed that James had tried the old battery system, and it had worked. He must have attacked almost instantly and sent in blow after painful blow into Joel's torso. I think everybody cheered when Joel finally fell over. He must have been in quite some pain. He'd probably welt up a fair bit tomorrow.

I then realised that the only people left were me and my five friends. We all fought well, but it was obvious that James and Sophie had us all overpowered pretty quickly. James won, this time not being so tired. Boy, was it a fight to see!

Lunch soon arrived, and I regathered my swords and threw them into the duat to keep them out of harm's way. One teacher had asked me to see her about doing some work that I was too lazy to do. I was wandering along the south corridor, heading for the board room, when I saw Miss Thornton talking with what looked like a hologram. I crept to the open door, and listened in.

"... All of the pieces are in place now, Amy. We have succeeded. Soon, the mortals will be able to see through the Mist! The world will be in uproar, demanding to know why the governments of the world have kept everybody enshrouded in the dark. Clear sighted mortals will no longer be an issue, everybody will see what we are doing. We won't have to keep secrets anymore! Bureaucracy will topple, and the world's governments will fall. The world will be toppled into a new Dark Age, in which we, the sharers of knowledge and sight, will rule over all! None of those pesky Magicians and Half-bloods would ever think to look in the places that we have hidden the artifact parts. It's true, the best place to hide is in plain sight, right under people's noses!"

Miss Thornton then had to turn around, didn't she? I was in plain sight.

"You! You little devil! You'll make a fine meal. I haven't fed in a while, and I'm hungry!"

Her eyes had turned a shocking red colour, and she began to get bigger. She grew wings, and her skin turned a coppery colour. She had turned into some sort of she-demon, like a succubus, but ugly. Her facial features were distorted, it looked like a live Picasso painting.

"Don't you know not to listen in on teacher's business?"

Her voice sounded like a thousand people being crucified. Her gaze terrified me and rendered me motionless, petrified and helpless. I knew I was about to die, and I'd become food for a demon, never to share the information I'd learned.

* * *

**Authors Notes: Ooh! Cliffy! Don't you hate me?**

**It's pretty obvious what's coming, well, then again, I already know. I'm the author.**

**I've suffered both massive writer's block on this chapter and I lost my writing mojo for a while, but I'm better-ish now I guess.**

**Fanfic Recommendation: Go check out Louisa4533's 'Freezing Silence'. Actually, start from her story 'Clashing Tides', or else it won't make sense, but do it anyway.**

**Book Recommendation: If you can find a copy of John Flanagan's 'Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan', buy it. You'll be hooked on it, I guarantee. Also check out his 'BrotherBand' series, if you can. Both of these are homegrown in Sydney, so check them out.**

**Nothing fancy going on now, school's school as usual. Yr 12s are finished now, and the school seems empty. I still hate homework, and I swear that health is a subject written by the devil himself to bore us to his kingdom.**

**What do people think I should call my little group of friends**. **Ideas in the comments, please! Writing 'my five friends and me' many times is boring and repetitive. Secret six? I dunno, help me, please!**

**Reviews are appreciated. Especially constructive criticism. :)**


	9. Who Ya Gonna Call?

**A/N: Well now, I'm back! After so long not being able to write due to assignments, harvesting and cricket, I finally have a full 4 weeks to read and write fanfics! Woohoo!**

**Thanks to Louisa4533. Yes, you are the only one reviewing, but thanks anyway.**

**I know that its fast pace, I just have a little trouble writing stuff without waffling too much.**

**Also, thanks to my beautiful ****editors, as always. You guys keep me going (as if the constant reminders to write a new chapter could stop me) :)**

**Anyways, I had to edit some earlier chapters in browser. It likes to not keep the grammar I make in OpenOffice. :(**

**Quick run down for those of you who may be confused:**

**Egyptian Magicians (ie Me) go to school to find potential trainees.  
I meet some confusing characters and old friends. (Main characters)  
We somehow meet up to kill a heap of trolls.  
We then go to my 'per' funded house (that sounds funny) to do some training and whatnot.  
James gives me a hidden blade and throwing knives.  
I almost stumble in on a "teacher's" conversation with some unknown and evil character. She then transforms into a monster, and we are at present state.  
All the while, I'm battling with regular teenage stuff. Screw teen years.**

**I'm listening to a Guns and Roses montage as I write, so this chapter should reflect their absolute awesomeness.**

* * *

Oh dear. Stuck, I am. Truly paralysed with fear, and possibly a little magic. I'm going to die. The world will sink into chaos, as the people riot and go crazy over the shroud breaking, and I, the only one who knows why, can't help because I'll be dead. Bummer.

Then, suddenly, the window behind the monster, who is licking her(?) lips, as if deciding whether I'd taste better deep-fried or baked, shattered, and an arrow appears, protruding from the monster's left-wing joint. I heard a loud curse coming from out the window - was that Nadia? I didn't think that she'd be one to swear. Whatever it was, my train of thought was derailed as Ariana front-flipped through the broken window.

She stood up straight and adjusted herself, then drew one of her gold knives. All this happened in about two seconds. The monster had turned to face the window, then started to angle at Ariana and hiss at her. That gave me time to quickly retrieve my wand and staff from the Duat. I pointed the wand head at Thornton and shouted, _"Se-kebeb!"_ Make Cold. Somehow, my imagination must have muddled the spell, because a heck of a lot of slushy-style ice spewed out from the dragon head at the monstrous being in front of me. Definitely not what I intended, as the monster swung around to immobilise me again!

This gave Ariana the perfect opportunity to kill the thing. She impaled the former teacher with one knife in the back of the neck, between the second and third vertebrae. She drew her other knife and plunged it into the monster's chest cavity, to where its heart would have normally been. The creature retched in pain, screaming. If those mortals outside were to hear it... I'd hate to think of the following events

I finished the beast off with a simple _"Ha-Wi"_ spell, and it turned to dust.

"Thanks Ari. I'd swear I was done for there." I commended.

"Thank Nadia. She saw a flash of light in the window, and decided that we should investigate. Probably a good thing, too. What were you even doing in there?" She asked.

"I was going to go see another teacher about some extra curricular work that they wanted me to do, and I heard a random voice that I didn't recognise talking to our friend here. It clearly wasn't human, but I couldn't see the source of the unholy noise very well. It looked a little like a hologram. It said something about mortals being able to see through the mist, I think. It doesn't sound good." I replied.

"No, that would be especially bad, considering the Winter Solstice in a few days. We had better go tell the others about this." She decided.

The whole seasons thing in Australia vs America is interesting. In America, as you well know, Summer is June, July and August, and Winter is December, January and February. In Australia, this is reversed. As such, Christmas is usually a forty-two degree day (that is centigrade, not Fahrenheit), and the Summer solstice is four days before, on the twenty-first of December. Our Winter Solstice, the darkest, most monstrous day of the year, -

[Yes, Soph. The only day that Hades was allowed on Olympus before the Titan War, I remember now]

- is the twenty-first day of June. It's easy to forget, but it's a helpful time-stamp, seeing as I seem to have missed putting dates in for events so far. Oops.

Once was had finally rounded up the others, we had very little time to explain things, so we had to abridge it a little.

"Okay, so I just got attacked by a teacher after listening in to their conversation. She was a monster, like an ugly winged hag. Luckily, Ariana and Nadia saved me just before I was killed, because the old hag had some sort of paralysis stare, like Medusa's, except it doesn't turn you to stone. She was talking to some holographic – like device, that seemed to talk back. It said something along the lines of 'We are going to rule the world by dissipating the Mist. The people will go berserk and we will instill order with them.' It mentioned some artifacts, and hiding them. Whatever the case is, we have to stop it, before it does this. I have a feeling that we can't predict exactly how bad this could get." Well, that's as abridged as I could put it.

"Who was the teacher?" Asked Nathan.

"Thornton." I answered.

"I knew it!" Exclaimed Sophie.

"We are going to have to travel around. I don't know where we are going to go, or where they may have hidden the artifacts, or even what these things are, but we need to find out, I guess." Explained Ariana.

"We can't leave until Wednesday, there is no point. The demon presence in the Duat is going to be ridiculously intensified until then, and the entire day of Monday, which is Winter Solstice, is so inauspicious that you can't form a portal anywhere! We can't leave on Tuesday, because it is still Monday in America. Also, monster count on Monday will be huge, so we can't fly, as we'll probably crash and kill a whole plane-load of people, and a boat is far too slow." I stated.

"True. I guess we should start in America. We might find guidance there." Affirmed Nathan.

"I think I know who we should go to first." Smiled Sophie

"Who?" We all asked at once.

* * *

**Authors Notes: Who's it going to be?**

**I thought I should try to get this up before December 21st, whatever that happens to be at your house. We wouldn't want monsters to hack the internet and destroy the world before you get to read this, that would be disappointing. **

**Fanfic Recommendation: 150 Things I'm Not Allowed to to do Mount Olympus by NutellaAlchemist, or kanayawest, or whatever her name is now. It's funny, and it's the main reason I got a account.**

**Book Recommendation: Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. Yes, the same person who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia is a Christian, and wrote many, many Christian books. They are all amazing and touch your inner being, Christian or not. If you haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia, you don't know what you are missing out on.**

**School's out, as previously mentioned, so I've been busy Christmas shopping and setting up guitars. I'm starting to miss seeing my friends, too.**

**Update should be more frequent from now, and I know this was a short chapter, but I just had to do it for the chapter title.  
**

**I still don't know what to call my awesome group of six. Please help me! Anything is cool!  
KakashiFanGirl17 suggests "the Narutards" because she likes Naruto. Please help me with this!**

**I've been looking at my traffic history, hello to our one friend from the Philippines!**

**Reviews are good guys, reviews are very good. Suggestions, elaborations, ideas, queries, comments, whatever. I'll respond to them all! :~)**


	10. Enter Annabeth

**A/N: Max says that you should all know that I don't own anything that I could be blamed for in copyright. I don't own Percy and Annabeth, other characters written by professional authors, or anything else. Editors, once again, thank you for your help. I really appreciate it. Finally, we have ten chapters, and we have breached the one thousand view mark! Yay! That may not seem like much, but for me, it is awesome. Also, I still have trouble with formatting. Everything looks fine in the browser editor, but as soon as you look at the actual webpage, there are words running up against each other, and all sorts of ugly stuff. I can't help it, and it's not my fault. Here we go again:**

* * *

"Who?" We all asked at once.

"An old friend of mine, Annabeth Chase." Sophie replied. The name rang a bell for me, but I couldn't picture who it was. "Where does she live?" Nathan inquired.

"She lives in San Francisco, which is where we are going to have to find her, but where we want to end up is on Long Island." Sophie answered. Long Island. That also brought up a thought of recognition, but I couldn't remember why. Maybe Amos had mentioned it? "Well, you're the wise girl. It sounds like as good of an idea as any, and we don't have any other plans." Ariana decided.

"If we plan to travel by portal, which I highly recommend, the closest place that we can exit the Duat will be in San Jose, at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. I can't remember any better places to try and connect a portal to, and that is standard for the Californian Bay area. We'll have to get a taxi or something to San Francisco. I'll be really, really tired by this point, which sucks. You won't be able to hear my witty commentary, because I'll barely be able to stand. Anyway, do we have questions?" I informed them.

"Yeah, if Annabeth lives in California, why do we want to end up at Long Island? It's literally on the opposite side of the nation!" Exclaimed Nadia, who so far had been pretty quiet.

"Well, Annabeth isn't the only person in America that I want to see. Long Island is a good meeting place, and if we want to make this into a proper quest, we have to go see the Oracle." Answered Sophie.

"The Oracle? As in, the Oracle at Delphi? How is going to Long Island going to get us to that old ruin?" Asked James.

"No, silly. We don't want to see the ruins. I told you that the Greek mythos is actually not just a religion to put in place of the boring and slightly unimaginative idea of Science. Our science of course, will be looked upon as silly and primitive in a few thousand years, I guarantee it. Anyway, we want to see the actual Oracle,the spirit of prophecy, the reason the building was built in the first place. She's a nice girl. She should be able to help us." Sophie answered all of James' questions. Before we could ask or answer any other questions, the bell rang for the start of period 5. "Everybody gets packing once you get home. It'll be warm in America, and I don't know how long we'll be there. Meet on Wednesday at ten AM at my place." I instructed.

++++I AM THE EVIL OVERLORD STEVE! FEAR ME+++++

The weekend passed uneventfully. Oddly, though, everybody seemed to wonder where Miss Thornton had gone. It seemed that the Shroud had indeed stopped working properly, if people could remember a teacher that normally would be made forgotten by the phenomena hadn't. I was starting to get worried. Solstice was actually really quiet, which kind of freaked me out. This hadn't happened since before Apophis was slain by the Kanes. Ten o'clock came on Wednesday, we had made our imaginative sicknesses known to the school, saying that we had no idea how long that we would be 'out of action', and that the teachers shouldn't worry too much. I could only open a portal at high noon, so I had everybody double check that they had everything. They did, and they were fully loaded with weapons. In order to be efficient travellers, I had to teach everybody how to make a duat space. "Calm yourselves. You will need to concentrate a lot. What you need to do is imagine a container in front of you. It could be a box, a locker, a safe, a chest, or anything really. Now imagine opening the container. I would imagine it with a lock on it, like a fingerprint sensor, or a combination lock, or something similar. Open the container, and now get your bags of stuff, and put them in the container. I know it's hard, but trust me and trust yourself. Now, close the container, and remember exactly what it looked like and where it was. Okay, you are done! Well done!"

"How in the name of French the Llama did we do that?" Asked Sophie.

"Magic is mainly done in three parts. About forty percent imagination, thirty percent words and thirty percent actual magic skill. The words aren't even the important part, they just let you focus and unleash the other two. Words do have power though, in particular some more ancient languages." Explained Nathan.

"That's a pretty good explanation. The most powerful languages are Egyptian, Greek and Latin. Hebrew has a lot of power, but because witchcraft and magic were sort of banned by God in the days of the bible, in order to keep the people from getting bloated heads and calling themselves gods in their own right, it wasn't used as a magic language. Generally, the older the language, the more power it holds, as it is closest to divine speech." I explained.

"Okay then. It's eleven fifteen, and I'm starving. What have you got to eat?" Asked James. We ate a couple of pies each for lunch, because pies are delicious, and then it was time to get the portal open. In the house we had multiple artefacts that are good for getting people around Australia, but we would need something more powerful to get all the way to San Francisco. We had a large tablet of Egyptian Limestone that had a message carved into it. It was similar to the Rosetta Stone, except the whole message was written in hieroglyphics, rather than three different languages, and it was just a generic carving of the original story of Osiris. It would do the job, getting us to California via portal. I stood in front of it at about two minutes to high noon, and I imagined the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, and a set of large shabti in there. Closing my eyes, I simply say " W 'peh". Open. A swirling mass of sand appeared before me. "Everybody in. We are going to Cali." I said, before walking through. When we walked out of the portal, and it was almost sunset. The museum was closing, so we wandered out casually. No one stopped us, and we went on to catch a taxi to Annabeth's house."Argh! These street names are so confusing! Not to mention boring. Can't they think of something more imaginative than a number?" Ariana complained. "I guess it helps identify how far the street is from the centre of the city. A clever person would be able to navigate the place easily enough." Nathan stated.

"Sophie, have you actually told Annabeth that we are coming?" Ariana asked.

"Bugger. I knew I forgot something. I'll ring her, hold on." Sophie took out her Nokia and proceeded to punch in some numbers.

"I'm gonna go have a snooze. I'm stuffed." I said. Opening a portal to half way across the globe is tiring work.

++++++++++I SHALL CONTROL YOU! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Nathan?"

"Yes, Max?"

"What the actual llama?""We needed to wake you up; we are at Annabeth's joint."

"I'll let you in on a little secret, mate. Ya don't have to put a bloody big bruise on my right shoulder to do it. You could have just poked me in the ribs or something." My arm hurt a lot.

"I told you not to hit him too hard! Nathan you silly billy!" That was Sophie. I had been asleep in the back left hand side of the taxi. Wait. Hold on just a second. You can't hire a taxi for six people. What was this?

"Evening chief." said the driver. He turned to look at me. I recognised the voice, and his face. He had a well chiselled face like the sphinx in Egypt, except with a nose. He also had dreadlocks and a goatee. "Lord Ra? What are you doing here?" I was confused.

"Nah, mate. Not Ra. He's up there-" He pointed to the roof. "-Chilin' with the other gods on the other side of the Duat." The not-Ra guy answered.

"Then who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Apollo. I heard you needed a ride west, so I was happy to oblige. You heroes are hilarious." He said.

"Oh. Okay then. Thanks for the ride mate!" I called.

"No worries, man. Give me a call if you ever need another ride! Oh, and Sophie, don't be alarmed if you don't get much out of the Oracle. This quest will be a lot harder than you first imagined." He said before the car started to glow. I was looking at a Mazda CX-7 after I had gotten out, and some part of me told me to look away from the vehicle that was becoming luminous with increasing intensity. I heard the growl of a V8 engine. When I looked back, Apollo was in a black Maserati Gran Tourismo, with red spider web detailing on the doors. "Did you get an upgrade, Lord Apollo?" Asked Sophie. "Yeah. This one has a nicer engine, and just looks more awesome." He called loudly over the low hum of the engine.

"How do you run it? Fuel must be expensive." Queried Nathan.

"It's solar powered!" He yelled before driving off into the sunset.

"What? How does that work?" Nathan's puzzlement was written all over his face.

"He's the Greek and Roman god of the Sun, silly. It runs off of atomic fusion, I think."Sophie attempted to clear it up.

Nathan still looked confused. "Oh, I get it. The sun is basically a humungous self contained fusion reactor. The engine noise must just be a cool god-thing."

"Anyway, we have more pressing matters." Said Nadia. We turned around to the red-brick house that we had stopped at. It was glowing a bit. With four tall, skinny windows on the left hand side and a cream-rendered front portico, a messy front garden and an iron side gate, it reminded me of my parents house. Of home. I suddenly got a really nostalgic and sentimental feeling in my gut. I hadn't seen Mum and Dad in nearly four years. They were both magicians living over in Swan Hill. I had been posted in Melbourne because there were no teachers in Swan Hill, just mages. If we were Jedi, the academy would be in Melbourne, and the Knights would be posted all over the joint in small but awesome houses. My parents were the magical equivalent of Jedi Knights, in that regard. We weren't allowed to visit them. Sophie rang the doorbell, and the door was opened by a pretty looking girl. She looked to be about 15, with long blonde hair, with grey streaks in it, and very dark grey eyes, like Sophie's, but deeper. She stood with an air about her that was strong, confident and wise. She glanced over us for about three seconds, then practically screamed "SOPHIE!"She ran out the door to hug Sophie, who was obviously her cousin or sister or something.

"Annabeth!" Said Sophie. Annabeth ushered us inside to a kitchen table, and went to get us some drinks. This Year by The Mountain Goats was playing from somewhere in the house. "Sophie, you didn't tell us that she was your sister!" Said Ariana.

"Well... ah... surprise!" Sophie replied.

"What exactly is it that you guys are looking for? You've come an awfully long way during school, so it's obviously not just to see me." Asked Annabeth, as she walked out carrying a slab of Mountain Dew.

"We have found a problem. Have you noticed the Mist hasn't been working in the last week?" Asked Sophie.

"No, but there hasn't really been a problem in which the Mist would have been used. That is, for me at least." Annabeth said. It was weird talking to someone who had an American accent. When people do that at home, it's just to annoy the poop out of you.

"Well, you'd better know what happened." I told her the story of my being attacked by the evil teacher of doom.

" Your monster sounds like a Kindly One, or a fury if you prefer the proper but more dangerous term, although I've never heard of a fury called Amy, nor of one who would have their own agenda. They are loyal only to Hades. I've not heard of any artefact that controls and exudes Mist, but I haven't really studied it. I know someone who probably has, though. I'll see what I can find."She disappeared for a time, when she came back with a laptop that looked both ancient and modern at the same time. It had a delta written on the back. " Hmm... I was right, Deadalus did do some research on the Mist. It says here that there are three large celestial bronze balls that are hidden around the World. One is in Europe, on the top of Mount Olympus, in the Olympic Brazier stand, one is on Olympus, like the one on the Empire State Building, and one is in Japan. They are imbued with magical spells that makes them exude the Mist. They were refined by Archimedes, he made them more focused and had them scattered to where they now live. They have to be exposed to the air to work, and if one is taken away, the rest stop working properly. I have a bad feeling about this. If someone has actually stolen one of them and separated it from the air, the world could go into mass panic. They'd blame their governments for not telling the people about stuff, and politics would destabilise. The world would possibly go into anarchy. We have to stop it." Annabeth said.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Sorry for taking so long to update. I have a massive writing mojo problem. Anyway, we have a plot point! Finally. I'm thinking about re-writing the first few chapters a bit. I've already started by wiping out dates and I've decided that the gang are now in Year 9, making them all, all writing is re-writing.**

**I don't have a FF recommendation today, sorry. Instead, I have a music Recommendation, which is The Mountain Goats. Or Hank Green. They're both awesome. Book Recommendation is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. It is a really good book. Ah, back to school, we are. Life sucks, oh well. I was really enjoying not having to-do anything at all. I still have only 9 reviews, and yet over a thousand people have visited the story. That's pretty disappointing. I really need constructive criticism. Come on!**


	11. My Apologies, Guys

I'm sorry that I haven't updated this story for a while (like, 3 months). I just haven't had the time or been in the right headspace to write this particular tale.

And, still, I'm not in the right state of mind.

So, the plan is, I'm going to postpone this story for a while. It will remain on the internet for all to see, but I'm not going to update it until I've had a bit of time to review it. I need to plan it out a bit, write down what is going to happen once I've decided to pick it up again.

I re-read it, and I realise that it really wasn't that great as a piece of writing, but I've come into a huge pile of good literature to read, so I plan to learn from that. Notably, John Green's works have led me to try a few different styles.

I have, however, compiled a list on how I plan to write better.

1. Sit down before you begin to write, and plan.

English teachers stress this a lot, but I've mostly ignored it for creative writing tasks, because I can just follow a whim for any story under 3 chapters, but for an actual proper story, you need to work out exactly where, when, what and how things are going to happen.

2. Write at least 2/3 of your story before you actually start to upload it.

This is where I failed the most on this story, I needed to write more than a chapter at a time. I needed to let it flow better, and the beginning has to match the middle. It is tempting to just upload a chapter or two to see what people think, and to get praise, but really, if you decide to scrap an idea, this can be bad.

3. Real life is a good inspiration, but don't use what is happening now as a plot.

You learn about things in life faster than you can write, and suddenly you are going to have issues. Also, things happen that you can't predict, and you know that suddenly an important plot element that you were hoping for in real life doesn't occur, but you have a much more interesting or soulful story than you did before. (This happened to me, and it landed me in hot water.) All my plans went down the creek, because this was a greater story that I could tell than my original idea, but then I didn't know what to do.

4. If you are using real people in your story as inspiration for a character, make sure that you don't have aspirations for romance with them, or that they aren't your only friend.

This is actually the most important thing to remember, because it could be a make or break situation in the future. If you have read Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (really good book), you will remember when Tiny mentions to Greg about the annoying whine that Phil Wrayson (who was obviously written off of Will #1. The musical was about Tiny's life, which was a bad idea. I had the same problem.) gets in his voice. Will overhears this, and its ends him into a big feeling of depression, which is no fun, even though Tiny insisted that it was about a fictional character, not Will. It is also vitally important that you don't have a 'crush' (God, I hate that term. Used in this instance, it doesn't mean what it is implying at all, which is not good.) on someone that you are writing about. It is bad if A) they start to go out with someone who is not you (as, if you have gotten this far in the story, Sophie did with Oscar) or B) you get completely rejected by them if you do pluck up the courage to ask them out, which will just throw out your entire will to write a story concerning them.

5. Try not to explain too much in the first 5 chapters. You have an unlimited number of them, use them well. Don't try to reveal every character in the first two, it isn't a Sega game. It is a story to hang on by possibly many people.

6. Ignore everything I just said.

You will only learn on your own, so go on. Make your own mistakes. That is what life is about.

I will re-write and continue the story, but not now. Maybe later. I am going to write something else in the mean time, and I'm gonna follow my own tips and a new writing style.

Sorry guys, but its how it has to be for now, I'm afraid.


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